Biotechnology Bulletin ›› 2016, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (3): 31-37.doi: 10.13560/j.cnki.biotech.bull.1985.2016.03.006

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Off-target of CRISPR/Cas9 System

YIN Shen, HE Gui-fang, LAI Fang-nong, XIE Feng-yun, MA Jun-yu   

  1. Institute of Reproductive Science, Key Laboratory of Animal Reproduction and Germplasm Enhancement in Universities of Shandong, College of Animal Science and Technology, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109
  • Received:2015-06-02 Online:2016-03-24 Published:2016-03-25

Abstract: As an adaptive immune system discovered in bacteria, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats(CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9(Cas9)technology has been used as the most effective genome-editing tool. By now, CRISPR/Cas9 has shown a great promise in healing human genetic diseases, however, off-target is a critical issue while applying it. The off-target of CRISPR/Cas9 leads to the false phenotype and wrong interpretation. Optimization of on-target activity and minimizing off-target activity will be challenges while CRISPR/Cas9 is applied in the future. In this review, we focused on the off-target related issues, including factors involved in the target specificity, strategies and tools of minimizing the off-target of CRISPR/Cas9.

Key words: off-target, target specificity, CRISPR/Cas9